Many of us pick up on new repertoire here, but the old standard way of picking up on new repertoire at recitals is still a good one, and since we don't have a thread for recitals we attend, I figured I'd start one. Every time you go hear a pianist or chamber group, post the program here, critique the performance of those pieces you were already familiar with, and make comments on the pieces that were new to you.

I went to see one of our piano faculty, Dr. Elizabeth Moak, play last night. Here's the program:

The only pieces I'm really familiar with are the Chopin ones, of course.

I think the high point of this program for me was the Bach, especially the Gigue, which I think was even more exciting than the gigue I'm working on from Partita #6. She played it fabulously, and damn near note perfect, as far as I could tell. She also used pedal throughout (though rarely a romantic wash of pedal), and some (IMO) tasteful rubato as well in some places (I think especially the Allemande and the Sarabande). But wow, that Gigue was awesome.

I'm not a big Beethoven fan....he has nice moments in his music, but the traditional classical style just bores me. Beethoven is my favorite classical period composer simply because he broke away from that style in many ways, but the (large) bits that remain still bore me. I really did enjoy the finale of the 3rd movement, though....there were only a few kinks in the performance of the whole sonata (I'm not familiar with it, but I noticed a few small kinks), but the finale was performed very, very well. I have a feeling that finale is the main reason why pianists want to learn this sonata.

The Chopin mazurka was pretty much perfect, very musically played. The Ballade gave her some problems, though...I could tell even in the beginning, in the lyrical section, that she was very much intimidated by playing it on stage (which is quite understandable - this ballade is no joke, despite its deceptive beginning and ending). Other than the trouble that the piece gave her, I think she played it quite nicely and musically overall.

The Nazareth was nice, but short, and the Ginastera was a bit longer and definitely more dramatic. I was sitting behind a guitar player, and I saw him perk up with the opening, which is the open string series of the 6 string guitar(E-A-D-G-B-E), at least by interval (I don't have perfect pitch). I'm usually not very fond of atonal stuff, but this piece was very exciting, and played very well.

She did an encore by another Brazilian composer, Villa-Lobos, though I don't remember the name of the piece. It was just a short and sweet one, though - flashy encores seem to be uncommon at my school (perhaps because the flashy pieces are all put on the program ).

Yeah, any piano performance is what I had in mind. People usually discuss the famous ones on the "pianists" forum, but I put this one here because I wanted to focus more on the repertoire than the pianist, though of course comments on the performance itself are quite acceptable.

He gave three encores:
A piece I can't remember at all (He didn't announce his encore pieces like many pianists do)
A Bach piece which I'm not sure but I think was the Allemande from the A minor Partita
Schubert Impromptu in G-flat

Most of the programs we get in Chicago are pretty standard like this. The most modern
piece this season was when Joyce Yang played Carl Vine's sonata No. 1.

I'm not sure why, but this recital did not really carry me away or inspire me (except
for the Bach and Schubert encores which were _so_ beautiful). Brendel is
a masterful technician obviously, but I just didn't feel like he was channeling the music.
Does that make sense? Of course every note was correct. He played these pieces
wth dynamics slightly flattened out, for example fortes not so forte and pianos not so piano.

Partly I do know the reason why I couldn't completely connect with him: from the
very first note there was a loud snoring sound clearly audible to the people in the
first few rows. I sit in row H and I could see many of the regular subscribers looking
around to see who was snoring. The snoring went away in the quiet parts and came back
full strength in the louder parts. I finally realized it must have been Brendel himself,
his breathing was loud enough we could hear it over the music.

Last edited by bclever on Wed Mar 19, 2008 5:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.

It was tough to decide whether to mention this one since it was a few weeks ago,
but since it probably was my favorite concert EVER (I still tingle when I think about this one)
on February 24, 2008 Jean-Yves Thibaudet played for a very sparse crowd in Chicago:

Finally he sat down again and told us about his 98 year old grandmother who used
to tell him "A day without Chopin was not a good day" and played the A minor waltz
Op. 34/2.

Hopefully my next statement won't get me kicked out of the forum, but I find Debussy boring.
I'm sure it is some failing on my part, some genetic anomoly that keeps me from enjoying
that music but to me it's just sound effects. I especially felt this way when Radu Lupu played
Book I two weeks prior. Unfortunately, the preludes were the second half of Lupu's recital,
and then he played two more Debussy pieces for his encores. Ugh, my significant other
and I left Symphony Center with no emotion whatsoever. It was like a non-event.

However when Thibaudet played Book II I came alive to the music.
I do not know why this recital hit me so hard, maybe I was in a good
emotional state, maybe I was happy I don't know. I wasn't even looking forward to this one
because of the Debussy on the program. But as soon as Thibaudet sat down, something
very special happened. He just became the music. I'm sure it had something to do with
the more intimate atmosphere of seeing a lot of the seats empty.

His Brahms Op 118 was absolute beauty. I had tears that I actually had to wipe away
(I'm 41 year old male). The Cherkassky is very Rachmaninov-meets-Chopin-esque
so of course I loved it.

Then when he played the Chopin, yes more tears and such a warm feeling in
my heart that still persists almost a month later. I truly believe that recital was something
special.

Last edited by bclever on Wed Mar 26, 2008 6:10 pm, edited 3 times in total.

I know what you guys mean about Debussy... He used to be one of my favourites but as time goes on I'm getting more and more into Ravel. I know they're similar, but with Debussy it's always like "ooooh fog foggy look I'm making fooog ooooh it's foggy". And that's basically all (with the exception of a few pieces when played well... like the last prelude from book II. I assume his etudes are good, but I'm not familiar with them) But with Ravel it has that same "sound" to it, and then there's something to cut through the fog and you can say "oh! a melody!"

Also, have any of you heard Alexander Kobrin's performance of the Brahms 118/2 intermezzo from his final round performance at the Cliburn in 05? It's extremely beautiful... I can listen to it over and over and I never get tired of it! (I'm not on my own computer right now, but when I am I'll post a link to it here...)

_________________The sentence below this is false.
The sentence above this is true.

Debussy can get a bit "foggy" for my tastes as well. Sometimes it's cool... but in high doses, it can cause issues.

Ravel is sooooo much cooler. I particularly enjoy the toccata from Le Tombeau de Couperin... it's totally not "foggy" in just about every way.

... but now I'm off topic ...

*runs away*

_________________"This is death! This is death as this emanation of the female which leads to unification ... death and love ... this is the abyss." This is not music", said [Sabaneev] to him, "this is something else..." - "This is the Mysterium," he said softly.

I got to see another recital tonight, this time by a guest artist that one of our piano faculty went to school with at Eastman. Her name is Lina Morita, and she's Brazilian-Japanese (interesting combo there), and she was raised in Brazil. As you would expect out of anyone with a doctorate from Eastman, everything on the program was played damn near perfect, and I found her playing to be very sensitive as well. This was a top-notch performance. Here's the program:

I have nothing but good to say about the performance, so I'll just give my impression of the repertoire.

The Granados pieces were all very nice pieces. The first two had moments that reminded me of Chopin mazurkas, though I can't remember which ones (I bet Monica would know!). Beethoven usually bores me, but she played this sonata so nicely that it actually entertained me quite a bit. Debussy usually bores me as well, and while #s 2 and 3 were no real exception to that, the Reflets dans l'eau was a lot of fun to listen to, and it seemed like it would be a lot of fun to play if you're actually good enough to play it (not me! ). The other two seemed more doable (especially the Hommage a Rameau, which seemed pretty easy), but they just weren't as interesting to me. The Villa-Lobos was very good, as was the Scriabin (do his sonatas not have movements?), and I heard a bit of Chopin in both of the last two pieces.

I'm playing some Bach in a master class with Ms. Morita tomorrow, and after hearing her play, I'm nervous!

The Villa-Lobos was very good, as was the Scriabin (do his sonatas not have movements?)

Scriabin's first 3 sonatas have clearly defined movements, and 6-10 are all in one movement. His 4th actually is in two movements, but the first movement goes straight into the second with one of those attacca thingies. I'm pretty sure the 5th is only in one movement as well, but I'm not really sure, as it's not one of my favorites. I tend to like early and late Scriabin, but not so much the middle, because he really doesn't have a strong voice in either direction.

_________________"This is death! This is death as this emanation of the female which leads to unification ... death and love ... this is the abyss." This is not music", said [Sabaneev] to him, "this is something else..." - "This is the Mysterium," he said softly.

No, there was no video, unfortunately. It went okay for me, though, which I was happy for (I had just bombed an accompaniment thing with a voice student a few minutes before, and that damn near ruined my whole day....%#%&*&^ Brahms!). Here's the program for the master class:

Beethoven Sonata Op. 2 No. 1, 1st movement, played by Charles Bridges

Liszt, Concert Study I, Waldesrauschen, played by Mary Chung

Beethoven, Waldstein, 1st movement, played by Jordan Scott

Bach, Partita in E Minor, Gigue, played by Theresa Gray (me)

Everyone that played was better than me, and their pieces were a lot more difficult of course. I talked about Mary Chung in the chamber music thread - she's working on her doctorate, and she's almost done, and she's almost as good as the guest artist herself was (maybe not even almost, lol). She got up there and started playing her Liszt, which I think is more difficult than anything Ms. Morita played (not that I don't think she could play it - she demonstrated that she could when she was giving Mary advice), but anyway, I was trying to think the whole time she was playing it what Ms. Morita could possibly even give her advice on, and the only thing I came up with is that her melodies could have been brought out a little more and her pedal could have been a bit cleaner, and sure enough, that's pretty much all the advice she had to give. The other two guys are better pianists than me, but not quite as phenomenal as Mary.

I just attended a doctoral lecture recital given by Amanda Virelles, whom I also talked about in the chamber music thread (and linked her MySpace). She was promoting the music of Rodion Shchedrin, a not-so-well-known Russian composer, and I really enjoyed everything she played. I'd recommend checking Shchedrin out to any of you who are looking for something outside the norm. This was her program:

Poem

Four Pieces from "The Humpbacked Horse" Ballet1. Elder Brothers and Ivan
2. Girls' Roundelay
3. Scherzino
4. I Play the Balalaika

Humoresque

A la Albeniz

Troika

Two Polyphonic Pieces1. Two-part Invention
2. Basso Ostinato

She said that the Basso Ostinato and the Humoresque are his most well-known pieces, but the A la Albeniz was my favorite.

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